A Baton Rouge district court judge Tuesday nullified the Nov. 6 election renewing tolls on the Crescent City Connection for another 20 years. Judge William Morvant of the 19th Judicial District ruled that voters were disenfranchised by the election, in which the decision to extend the tolls passed by just 36 votes.

Opponents of the tolls, and the resulting close election, argued that provisional ballots handed to more than 1,000 voters who said they were registered, but were not on the registrar's rolls on election day, amounted to denying them a right to vote on the tolls. Provisional ballots allow voters to vote only in federal races, but not in state and local elections.

Morvant ruled that since the tolls issue was a local election, the people forced to cast provisional ballots were effectively disenfranchised by the election.

Mike Teachworth, director of Stop the Tolls, asked Morvant to throw out the election results because of the provisional ballots given to large numbers of voters, including more than 1,000 people who attempted to vote at their correct precincts in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. Those provisional ballots limit voters' participation to federal elections only, denying these voters the ability to vote on state and local elections, which included the CCC toll proposition, according to Teachworth's lawsuit.

Those legally registered voters were disenfranchised and could have changed the outcome of the election, Teachworth is arguing in his lawsuit.

"We're elated, couldn't be more happy," Patrick Hand III, Teachworth's Attorney said after judge's ruling. "I think we just made history. I don't think anybody ever done this in this context before."

Secretary of State Tom Schedler said he would schedule the new election on May 4 as instructed by the judge.

"Clearly, there were some mistakes at the local level for this election and I plan to reach out in the coming weeks to see if the clerks and registrars in those parishes would like some technical assistance from our office, Schedler said. "The bottom line for me today is, I trust the process we have in place to contest an election. If you can make your case, you get another swing."

"People better get out in vote," Hand said. "We've given them another opportunity to vote, we've protected their rights to vote, that's what this was all about. A lot of people were disenfranchised in this election."

Hand said the disenfranchisement wasn't done intentionally but mistakes were made. "I don't believe any of it was intentional but the end result was, over 100 people who were legally registered voters in the right precinct at the right time were denied their right to vote on the Crescent City Connection toll proposition," he said.

"This is a great day," Teachworth said. "[It] gives us another chance to defeat an unfair tax on the people of the West Bank."

Testimony on Monday focused on how widespread provisional ballots were in the November election.

Tolls on the Crescent City Connection will be reconsidered in a special election May 4 (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com |The Times-Picayune)

Philip Trupiano, chief deputy at the Jefferson Parish registrar of
voters office, testified Monday that he conducted a study on his own of the 270
precincts in Jefferson Parish. He said he found more than 90 instances
of eligible voters who were deemed ineligible to cast a regular ballot
and were given provisional ballots.

Trupiano said in his study,
those registered voters arrived at their correct voting precincts but
were given provisional ballots, which did not allow them to vote on the
Crescent City Connection toll.

Marisa Escudero, of Gretna,
testified that she registered to vote in September 2012, at the Office
of Motor Vehicles on the West Bank when she moved from Texas to
Louisiana. "I wanted to vote like every other American citizen," she
said. But on Election Day in November, Escudero was told she wasn't
registered to vote and she was given a provisional ballot.

Christine
Reine of Marrero was a first-time voter, and testified she registered
to vote online Sept. 23. But on Election Day, she was told she wasn't on
the registrar's books. "I was upset," she said. Reine said a week after
the election, she received a voter registration card.

Attorney Patrick Hand, right, talks to reporters outside the district courthouse in Baton Rouge after a judge struck down the November results of the Crescent City Connection tolls extension referendum. At left is Mike Teachworth, who brought the suit as president of Stop the Tolls.Photo by Quincy Hodges / NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Four more
witnesses gave similar testimony, saying they presented identification
and proper registration but were denied a regular ballot on Nov. 6.

Earl
Schmitt, a poll commissioner in Orleans Parish, testified that on his
watch, eight voters were given provisional ballots on Nov. 6. Schmitt
said he tried calling the Orleans Parish registrar of voters office,
then even Jefferson Parish and Avoyelles Parish, trying to get an
answer. "You'd call and it would just ring and ring," he said.

Schmitt said he couldn't get through to the secretary of state's office, either.

Morvant said the outcome of the election was impossible to determine because properly registered voters were given provisional ballots, in which they shouldn't have. The judge referenced Trupiano's testimony as the driving factor in his ruling, highlighting that many irregularities occurred at the Nov. 6 election.

"There are a lot of forces out there that make a lot off the tolls," Teachworth said. "This is really about the little guy getting another shot, that's what this is all about."

The tolls generate about $22 million annually and provide three-fourths of the budget for the agency that oversees the operation.